¹Am I not free ? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ , our Lord ? Aren’t you my work in the Lord ?

²If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you ; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord .

³My defence to those who examine me is this :

⁴Have we no right to eat and to drink ?

⁵Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord , and Cephas ?

⁶Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work ?

⁷What soldier ever serves at his own expense ? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit ? Or who feeds a flock , and doesn’t drink from the flock ’s milk ?

⁸Do I speak these things according to the ways of men ? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing ?

⁹For it is written in the law of Moses , “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares ,[#Deuteronomy 25:4]

¹⁰or does he say it assuredly for our sake ? Yes , it was written for our sake , because he who ploughs ought to plough in hope , and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope .

¹¹If we sowed to you spiritual things , is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things ?

¹²If others partake of this right over you , don’t we yet more ?

Nevertheless we didn’t use this right , but we bear all things , that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ .

¹³Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple , and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar ?

¹⁴Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News .

¹⁵But I have used none of these things , and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case ; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void .

¹⁶For if I preach the Good News , I have nothing to boast about , for necessity is laid on me ; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News .

¹⁷For if I do this of my own will , I have a reward . But if not of my own will , I have a stewardship entrusted to me .

¹⁸What then is my reward ? That when I preach the Good News , I may present the Good News of Christ without charge , so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News .

¹⁹For though I was free from all , I brought myself under bondage to all , that I might gain the more .

²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew , that I might gain Jews ; to those who are under the law , as under the law , that I might gain those who are under the law ;[#9:20 NU adds: though I myself am not under the law]

²¹to those who are without law , as without law (not being without law towards God , but under law towards Christ ), that I might win those who are without law .

²²To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men , that I may by all means save some .

²³Now I do this for the sake of the Good News , that I may be a joint partaker of it .

²⁴Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run , but one receives the prize ? Run like that , so that you may win .

²⁵Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things . Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown , but we an incorruptible.

²⁶I therefore run like that , not aimlessly. I fight like that , not beating the air,

²⁷but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means , after I have preached to others , I myself should be disqualified.